UPDATED: Dec. 27 at 1:15 P.M.
A week after Elias Diaz was charged with the 2003 murder of Rebecca Park, Philadelphia police said he has also been charged with three additional assaults. Police believe Diaz to be the Fairmount Park Rapist.
Authorities on Wednesday formally charged Diaz with two rapes and one attempted rape, among other related offenses, including kidnapping, attempted kidnapping and aggravated assault.
The first rape, in April 2003, and the attempted rape, in October 2003, happened in Fairmount Park. The other rape happened in Pennypack Park in 2007.
Original story follows:
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Elias Diaz, the man arrested earlier this week for allegedly slashing two people with a machete on the Pennypack Park Trail in November, has been charged with the 2003 murder of Rebecca Park — one of at least four attacks carried out by the “Fairmount Park Rapist.”
Diaz has been charged with murder, rape, abuse of a corpse, and related charges for the murder of 30-year-old medical student Rebecca Park.
She went for a jog in Fairmount Park on July 13, 2003, but never came home. Her boyfriend and family reported her missing after she didn’t show up for rounds at Bryn Mawr Hospital.
A couple driving nearby called in a tip about hearing screams the day she was last seen in a wooded area. She was found dead four days later.
Diaz’s fingerprints and DNA were collected after his arrest this week as part of the Pennypack investigation, but that DNA sample led to a huge break in one of the most notorious cases in the city.
On Nov. 22, around 8:15 a.m., police said a jogger was slashed with a large machete by a man on a bike on the Pennypack Park Trail. The victim was slashed multiple times on the arms and hands. Two days later, a similar attack was reported.
The first attack by the Fairmount Park Rapist happened in April 2003. The suspect ambushed a woman who was jogging along Kelly Drive, near Fountain Green Drive. He threatened her with a knife and sexually assaulted her.
Months later, in July, Rebecca Park was found along the 3500 block of Conshohocken Avenue. She had been raped and strangled.
Then in October, on West River Drive near Falls Bridge, the suspect attempted to strike again but the victim was able to get away.
The next attack occurred four years later, in August 2007. The victim was sexually assaulted along a trail in Pennypack Park, near Frankford and Solly avenues.
Although DNA technology was in its infancy, investigators quickly linked the murder and rapes to a single suspect, who became known as the Fairmount Park Rapist.
Police are awaiting final results to confirm that 46-year-old Diaz’s DNA matches that of the Fairmount Park Rapist. Diaz is believed to be that man.
Thus far, his DNA matched the suspect in the Rebecca Park case. The three other sexual assaults are still pending DNA confirmation.